The Quarterly Journal of St. Philaret’s Institute

The book “The End of the Modern World” (1950) by the prominent Catholic thinker and priest Romano Guardini offers a vision of history that allows one to avoid both the idea of its single direction and its anonymity, thereby revealing a new Christian understanding of history. Analysing the picture of the world in the Middle Ages, as well as the worldview revolution of the Modern Era, Guardini presents each period and even the most threatening situations as a kind of chance given by God — as καιρός, a favourable moment and a unique gift that opens up new opportunities, which, however, may be irretrievably lost. It is from this standpoint that he analyses both the collapse of the ideals of the Modern Era and the contemporary frightening phenomenon of the “mass man”, which heralds the beginning of a new epoch. Unlike other thinkers — Ortega y Gasset and H. Arendt, who also wrote about the “mass man” but in an exclusively negative vein — Guardini attempts to see the positive meaning of this phenomenon. Instead of lamenting the irrevocable loss of the ideal of a uniquely talented personality, we should understand what new opportunities and new challenges lie ahead for the “mass man”. Guardini formulates it as the preservation of the person — irreplaceable in their dignity and unsubstitutable in their responsibility — as well as resistance to the faceless, anonymous forces that are increasingly taking hold of humanity. In Guardini’s view, the responsibility here lies primarily with Christians, since it is the Christian faith that provides the justification for the infinite value of every living person. Today, 75 years after the publication of Guardini’s book, it is worth asking not only how fruitful his perspective on history has proven to be, but also whether his hopes for the realization of the Christian vocation have been justified in a new epoch.